A Long Road to Fortune/Issue 27
This is the third issue in Volume 5 of A Long Road to Fortune. It is titled Shrouded Shadow. 6 months ago Another rowdy and noisy night in Tecpan de Galeana. It was December's annual three week holiday break amidst the town so that meant parties and other festivities like such were common each night and annoying, loud fireworks were set off all around so getting a peaceful and serene night would have to wait past this era of holiday cheer. One of the town's local bars, located west of the zocalo going in the opposite direction to the main avenue, next to a basketball court and one of the few gymnasiums in town, was having a lively night. People drank, danced, watched music videos, etc. all while drinking from their beers or glasses full of scotch. Since the bar had large open windows and more than one open door, people danced outside and inside of it. Right in the middle of all the commotion, one dashing woman walked into the bar and took a seat right next to the bartender. This woman was Yuri and she obviously wasn't in the mood to drink today. A friend of her's had called her though, saying she wanted to get together and chat. Yuri was annoyed at the fact that she couldn't have picked a quieter place to chat though. A man sat six seats from her, drinking his problems away. He was Francisco Navaja, who'd been dealing with yet another unpleasant girlfriend. He had called things off with her weeks ago but the the woman would not cease to make his life hell. All he could do was think and take sips of his beer. He did so until he spotted Yuridia Baltazar stting far from him. “Just more sluts...sigh” he said to himself. Yuri sat, looking away from the dancing and straight to the tv's music video while she sat. She didn't like the song on tv, it was some Pitbull song she didn't like, but it's not like she had anything better to do while she waited so she kept her eyes glued to the television. While this went on, the bartender approached her. “What can I get you mama?” the bartender asked her. Yuri couldn't help but roll her eyes yet at the same time she didn't want to be rude to him so she did so discreetly. Yuri and the bartender were actually friends and he was actually a happily married man but she couldn't help but react negatively at comments like those. “I'll take a coca cola. Not really in the mood for drinking. I'm just meeting a friend.” Yuri answered. “Alright then.” the bartender replied, nodding understandably. He went made his way over to the cooler in order to fetch Yuri her soda. But while he was doing so, a group of four shady men surrounded Yuri. She could recognize them as gang members. This terrified her to no end but she knew she had to play it cool to avoid letting them know. “Can I help you with anything?” Yuri asked the men. The look of lust in their faces made her that much more uncomfortable. “Why is such a pretty gal lonely this great night? Why don't you come have fun with us?” one of the men asked her. They got closer and closer to her. Yuri didn't know how much longer she could keep her act up. “I'm not looking for company tonight.” she replied simply. Wrong choice, this only made the men come closer and closer to her until one of them laid his hand on her shoulder. “Come on baby, we won't bite. We can start off slow and then we can get to the fun.” the man went on. Francisco was watching this exchange from his seat. He was almost drunk at this point, evidenced by the four empty beer bottles in front of him, coupled with the glass of scotch in his hand. As far as Francisco could tell, Yuri was enjoying the company of men. So with that he returned to his consumption. The bartender saw this and looked at Yuri's look of discomfort so he fixed his sights on the situation, with Yuri's soda held tightly in his grasp. “Can I get you boys anything?” the bartender asked them. They turned their eyes towards him, amused looks in their eyes. “Some more time alone with this beauty.” one of the men replied. “I don't think she'd like that.” he replied. “Come on baby, don't you wanna have some fun with us?” One of the men replied, as he slowly tried to place his hand on Yuri's thigh. She noticed this and reacted suddenly by pulling herself off of her seat rising to her feet. This sudden impulse caused one of the men to fall back. Francisco spotted this and looked at Yuri straight in the eye. She was in the brink of tears. Maybe he'd been wrong about her he thought, so he got up and slowly made his way towards her. He was drunk, angry, and frustrated. He could let off some steam with a little fight. That is until... Sounds of fighting and brawling could be heard outside. Apparently some drunken idiot had picked a fight with one of the gang members...and the drunken idiot was winning. So before they could lay another hand on Yuri, the gang had to split but not before one of them smacked Yuri in the ass. Francisco say this and lunged at the gang member. Another drunken idiot picking a fight with yet another gang member...and this one was winning too. Yuri quickly made her way over to the back exit of the bar but not before mouthing the words “thank you” to the bartender. He nodded in response as he made his way over to break up Francisco's fight before another gang member could intrude. As Yuri made haste to walk back home in the streets of Tecpan near the Apolonio, she grabbed her phone and dialed her friend. “Change of plans. There's a gang fight in the bar...just meet me back home please....alright thanks.” She said, ending the conversation. All she could do now was walk back home and hope not to run into anymore trouble. Issue 27 Back at Ashton's house, Mimi led the way inside. The house was as elegant as she remembered it. Portraits and vases, along with some china on the kitchen and elegant furniture all around. This wasn't at all like your typical Tecpan home. It had the scent of richness in it as it did snobbishness, despite the fact that the person living here was one of the nicest people she knew. “Wow. How can one place look so neat at a time like this?” Mimi asked. “Well, my aunt Patricia kept it this way for who knows how long. She'd been living here quite a while actually so she kept it clean for her sake as well. And then once this started, she supplied the house with enough supplies to last us both for months.” Ashton replied. He approached the supplies stored in the large entertainment center of his living room and well as the shelves near it. Water bottles, canned goods, granola bars, toilet paper, soap, even some spare clothes of all sizes. But the two things that caught Ashton's attention were the bloody duffel bag and revolver laying on the ground. He hadn't seen them before yet last time he was here he only got a slight look at everything inside so it was possible he didn't remember them. Mimi recognized the red cross sewed on to the bag and hoped the contents were what she wanted. “What's in there?” Mimi asked. “Ashton, you didn't mention a duffel bag.” Liza added. “I just remembered I even had a duffel bag. Sorry Liza, but if I recall correctly...” Ashton went on to open the duffel bag, revealing an array of medicine and other medical supplies. “Yup. She must have gotten these out of the hospital before she got me out of there.” he added. Mimi's eyes widened at the sight. “Here Mimi. I found these with the rest of the clothes. They're Patricia's size so you shouldn't have much trouble with them.” Liza said to her, handing her some clothes, a towel, and a bar of soap. “You can use whatever shower you feel like using. You remember how many there are right?” Liza asked. “Yeah like 4, right?” Mimi answered and Liza then nodded in response. “Alright then. I reek so I'm going to go shower. Don't have too much fun while I'm gone.” Mimi said. With that, she walked upstairs to the master bedroom where Ashton's parents would sleep. Once there, she entered the private bathroom the room offered her. “Can you believe her Ashton? She's already treating us like a married couple....Ashton?” Liza said. She looked around the living and kitchen for Ashton but it didn't hit her to look at the sliding door opened just a crack. She walked through and found Ashton there in his back terrace. Pool, hammock, and a plot of dirt for gardening, which is where Ashton stood. His eyes fixed upon a wooden cross planted on the ground. Liza joined him and rested one hand on his shoulder. She too stared at the cross with Ashton. “'Patricia Gladys Leon Huerta' January 2nd 1981 – May 2010” “She obviously thought you were worth it. You don't need to feel bad about it. I don't think she would have wanted you to.” Liza told him. “I cannot stop thinking about all those times she asked me how my day went or how I was feeling...and I did not even meet her in the eye with a reply. She cleaned for me, she cooked for me, all when I stopped because she knew I had her...she loved me like a son. I just- I do not know why.” Ashton said. His confusion only made him sadder and Liza could tell easily. “But she loved you regardless...don't question it. It doesn't help and it never will.” Liza responded to him. “But I just- I miss her- I really do. I want to thank her for- for everything. But I cannot and that is what I cannot let go off.” Ashton replied. He turned to the nearest wall and struck it repeatedly until Liza's gentle touch caused him to stop. “You know anger doesn't help you let go of things Ashton...I know what I'm saying. It will just tear you apart even more until you don't know what to do with yourself anymore.” Liza added. She wrapped her arms around Ashton's back and rested her head on his shoulder. “But sometimes it helps to cry and let those emotions out as tears” Liza added. The sweet serenity of her voice soothed Ashton's pain, so he tried to cry. But as much as he could, not a single tear ran down his face. “Thank you Liza. I don't know what I'd ever do without.” Ashton replied. Liza simply smiled. “Likewise.” she pecked him in the cheek. As both stepped back into the house, Ashton couldn't help but eye the duffel bag suspiciously. He'd zipped it closed...or at least he thought he had. All he could do now was zip it shut and eye it suspiciously. ---- Gustavo and his men trudged forward, passing el Cerrito's homes with haste. The armory was just ahead and Gustavo could see it. He smiled excitedly as everyone followed. Valdez's home wasn't too far from the armory so he could catch up in a heartbeat. No one was worried about him though, he knew the area very well. After another minute of moving, they finally arrived at the armory. The armory itself wasn't much at all. Just a long one story building with a large wooden fence surrounding it. The top of the fence was lined with barbed wire so climbing wasn't going to be an option. The front door was locked tightly with various chains. The chains were dented though, which meant others had been trying to wander in to no avail. Gustavo just smirked and whiped a pair of bolt cutters out a second later. “Let's see if these do the trick. Heheheh...” Gustavo said, confident. Much to his dismay, the chairs were proving to be too much to simply cut. Gustavo didn't give in though and managed to break the first chain with his brute force. “Heheh. No sweat.” he smirked. After about 6 minutes, all of the chains had been cut off. It was only a simple matter of pushing the door down now. “Well fuck my hands hurt like a motherfucker. Take care of that door for me, before we get spotted by anymore undead cabrones.” Gustavo ordered, as he attempted to massage his hands. “Sure, we got this sir.” Francisco answered. He looked Aguila in the eye and both men nodded upon agreeing in one thing. “Three...two...one.” Both men said. The second they hit one, both began to kick the door as hard as they could until the door was taken down in response. A look inside from the outside revealed an unlocked door to the armory itself. Something wasn't right in Gustavo's mind. “I'll go check it for any biters.” Jaime said, volunteering. He took cautious steps surrounding the area and heard something move the empty metal containers near him. Jaime eyed them suspiciously, tightly grasping his knife. He got closer and closer until he got close enough to the cans. He kicked them away, revealing a man cowering in fetal position. He looked to be no older than 30. “Don't- don't hurt me man. I ain't armed- nor do I want to get shanked by that. Can you just put it way please.” the man said to Jaime, still cowering in the ground. “You got it all wrong man. I'm with the military. We came here looking for people and weapons, and it looks like we just found both!” Jaime exclaimed. He extended his hand out to the man, who hesitantly grabbed it while shaking. “Did you say military? I thought they were never coming.” the man said. He looked behind Jaime until he spotted the woman he'd been staying with. Her gun was raised highly and aimed straight at Jaime. The man noticed her and shook his head in a effort to stop her, but it was too late. The woman fired a shot a Jaime's back and Jaime hit the ground. “Ah fuck!” Jaime screamed in pain. “Paloma, why'd you do that? He was here to help!” the man exclaimed. “Jesus, what the hell are you talking about?” Paloma exclaimed, unaware that she had shot a military man. “What in the fuck?” Gustavo said, as he stepped in. He locked eyes with the woman, Paloma. Sooner than not, Paloma opened fire on Gustavo, forcing him to dive for cover. Paloma took advantage of this to reach for cover as well. Gustavo managed to drag himself behind a concrete bench, while Paloma had entered the armory and begun to fire from the window. Jesus, terrified for his life, could only drag Jaime and himself back behind the cans as they were sure to be caught in the crossfire. “You okay man?” Jesus asked Jaime. “Hell no. Gah, that bitch penetrated my vest.” Jaime said. He was bleeding from behind although to Jesus it didn't look like anything important was damaged. “You're going to be fine. Just, fuck, I hope Paloma comes to her senses. There's no stopping her when she gets like this.” Jesus said. From the outside, Francisco and Aguila could hear all of the commotion. “That didn't sound good Francisco...sounds like there are some hostiles in there. We have to get them out of there before they catch a bullet!” Aguila said. “Yeah, no kidding.” Francisco added. “We're going in. Follow my lead unless you feel like catching a stray.” Aguila ordered. Francisco wasn't about to object so he followed Aguila's lead without hesitating. Paloma, the woman, was shooting straight at Gustavo, who wasn't shooting back for some reason. Aguila noticed this and pointed Francisco to another cover spot, behind another pair of metal cans and then back to Gustavo. Paloma didn't notice their presence at first until Aguila fired a silenced bullet at her direction, one which nearly grazed her head. Francisco took this time to join Gustavo behind the bench and Aguila took it to dive behind the metal cans. Paloma was packing an assault rifle, not to mention her position gave her the upper-hand against Gustavo. Now that Aguila and Francisco had joined in, it all seemed to even out. “Fuck. This bitch is going to get us all killed!” Gustavo screamed. “She's recklessly firing that damn thing. She's going to call the damn herd!” Gustavo added. Paloma had one thing in mind though; protect herself and Jesus from this group of “hostiles”. She still hadn't noticed Aguila's military outfit, amidst her rage filled gun craze. “HEY, EVERYBODY JUST CHILLAX!” a voice called out. Valdez had entered the scene. He stood between the exchange, knowing Francisco and Aguila would cease to shoot. Hopefully Paloma would do the same, and surely enough she did as soon as she spotted Valdez right in front of the concreted bench. Since his arms were raised high into the air, so she knew she'd be in no trouble. Valdez smiled. “Alright. Now that I've got your attention, allow me to introduce myself...” Valdez went on. ---- The scene at the zocalo was calm compared to that of the armory, as Pepe, Daniel, Jacobo, and a few others worked on chopping wood and nailing materials together to build the walls to secure the location. As he slaved away at chopping wood, Pepe turned his sights to Mario Galeana, returning from an adventure of sorts when in turn, he was supposed to be sanding. Mario wasn't to do any heavy lifting until his arm could fully heal. Despite him removing his sling a day ago, Mario had been straining his arm a whole lot. Pepe could tell from the way Mario winced in pain with every step he took. Worried, Pepe walked over to him, an interrogative look on his face. “Hey, Mario!” Pepe called out to the man. Mario simply tried to walk past him until Pepe stopped him by placing his hand on Mario's back. “Where'd you run off to just now?” Pepe asked him. Mario scoffed. “None of your damn business, Pepe.” Mario replied. “Well, I wanna make it my business. Whatever you were doing just now put a lot of strain on your arm. I can from tell from the way your wincing.” Pepe replied. “I ain't telling you.” Mario replied back. Pepe could sense Mario's uncooperativeness was only going to grow so he glanced the metal pipe firmly on his grasp. It was covered in blood and bits of guts. It didn't take Pepe long to realize where Mario had gone off to. “Oh I see. Blowing off some steam bashing some heads in? That's no good for you man. You're injured. What were you thinking?” Pepe asked him once more. Mario had just about enough of Pepe's nosy-ness and attitude, so he simply smirked and shoved Pepe away, pushing the man to the floor. Pepe got up and became infuriated by Mario's action. So he returned and stood in his path once more. “Oh, no way you're going back to sanding now. Go get that arm checked out before you lose it.” Pepe commanded. Mario smirked and both men began to stare each other down. “Why don't you make me, military nut?” Mario replied. Pepe was gritting his teeth at this point. There was no other way to do this now. Mario was going to start yet another fight in the vicinity. “What? You wanna whack me too like you did Ashton huh? Well you hotheaded fucker try that shit on me and we'll see who's gonna end up wacked. I was trying to help your stubborn ass. But no, you're Mario God damn Roidrage Galeana, who'd rather lunge at anything that moves instead of using his damn head like a god damn fucking adult.” Pepe retorted. All eyes were on the struggle now and Daniel took note of it. This wasn't going to end well for either of them. “Oh hell no. You're both too old for this shit.” Daniel told both of them. As soon as he could, he stepped right in the middle of the conflict and pushed both men away from each other. Mario simply swatted Daniel's hand off of himself and fixed his shirt. Pepe did the same, without rudely swatting Daniel. “Stay away from me.” Mario said to Pepe, warning him while at the same time pointing and glaring at him. With that, Mario walked off while Pepe simply glared at the man. “I cannot believe that guy!” Pepe exclaimed angrily, not believing what the hell had just happened. “Just let it go man. He ain't worth the skin of your knuckles. Now come on, everybody's slacking thanks to both of you.” Daniel told him. Both men soon returned to their respective expansion duties. As Mario entered the walls and walked towards the marketplace, he had bumped into Sandra Gomes on accident. Mario simply glared at her in order to get out of his way but she would not budge. Sandra stayed firmly planted on the ground in front of Mario. “What are you looking at?” Mario rudely remarked. His tone of voice was threatening but Sandra couldn't help but feel amused. “Don't tell me you're going to hit a girl Mario?” Sandra retorted. Mario had no other choice but to calm down. “Do you need me to look at that arm?” Sandra asked him with a closed grin on her face. “...yes.” Mario replied. Sandra couldn't help but chuckle at the man's response. “Well why didn't you say so?” Sandra replied back, amused as ever. ---- Elsewhere within the marketplace, Mendoza was doing a routine supply checkup. He had a clipboard on his hand with inventory of everything. Food, weapons, and medicine. This wasn't an easy job anymore thanks to his hindered eyesight but it would manage. He spent the day crossing and checking things off. This was incredibly important to the marktplace's survival, so Mendoza took pleasure in doing it every single day. He took extreme caution as well, anything under or over stocked would influence the marketplace negatively. As he did this, the injured Jose Quintero joined him. “Hey, Mendoza. Another routine checkup?” Jose asked. “You bet. Every single day. If we went a day without these we'd be hopelessly lost. No idea of how much we have or how long it's gonna last us. We need them to survive.” Mendoza answered. Jose didn't want to be rude but he had negative feelings about this whole thing now. He wanted to escape the marketplace and find a safer place to live now that the cartel was only looming in the distance...but he knew he wouldn't get far by himself. Anyone that tried that would end up dead for sure. “But how can we survive now? I mean, the cartel wants us dead. I can't sleep at night thinking everything is going to be fine when they very well could come in here at night and execute us.” Jose replied. Mendoza stopped and turned to him. “You don't need to worry about the cartel Jose. That is my responsibility. You wanna know what yours is? To get better and continue filling our hearts with joy. Is that understood?” Mendoza asked him. Jose could only reply with a hesitant nod. “Good. Now, go rest. You're going to need it.” Mendoza ordered. Jose saw no other choice but to try and accept Mendoza's words. He was right, it wasn't his job to worry about it...but it was his responsibility as one of the inhabitants to do so. ---- Yuri had her bags completely filled with whatever she could find that she could carry. Be it food, shampoo, or clothing. So thanks to that, she'd spent the last hour or two asleep in the comfort of her bed. Oh how she missed this bed she thought. Time had gone by awful slowly for Yuri as she awoke from what she thought was the nap of the century. Yuri was now sitting up in her bed, wearing the exact same clothes she'd wore on the way here. Yuri wasn't a fan of sleeping with her day clothes on but she saw this as an exception due to just how fatigued she'd been the last week. So with that,Yuri arose her bed and slumber and made her way to her bags. She made her way over to her door but before she turned the knob she took another look at her apartment. No goodbyes were needed, as she was planning on returning on more than one occasion. With her bags on hand, Yuri locked the door to her house and walked down the stairs. Upon reaching the cyber cafe, she was greeted by a lone grosero. Unlike the one she had found earlier, this grosero was just as the rest everyone had been dealing with the last few months. Yuri simply sighed and plunged her knife deep into its skull. One grosero wasn't a problem, not at all. It didn't even faze her. As Yuri walked back to the marketplace while slowly watching her steps, she could feel a distorted chill running down her back. What the cause of this chill was, seemed to be unknown yet it's almost as if she'd been feeling this chill all of her life. Instinctively, Yuri looked back. Six slow moving groseros were tailing her about 30 feet behind. It wasn't a reason to worry, it just mean that she would have to walk faster. Two minutes passed, and Yuri was just reaching the bar. The same bar she'd been harassed and hit on so many times. Way too many to count. Here she could either go east towards the zocalo or straight ahead towards the back wall near the soccer field. She pondered for a moment, until the sounds of jaws snapping, snapped her out of it. Yuri looked behind her completely horrified; over a dozen groseros were less than 10 feet from her. All the commotion caused 5 more to appear on the path to the zocalo. All eyes were on Yuri now as she felt trapped, scared. It was finally happening, the moment she feared the most was here. She was trapped by too many groseros to make her escape. All of her emotions came rushing at her like a hurricane. Yuri remembered just how terrified of groseros she was. It was hard to believe that she was the right hand of Gustavo Texta. Yuri froze up as the groseros got closer and closer. Tears ran down her face savagely as she tried not to scream. In one final effort of escape, Yuri dropped her bags and ran straight. Amidst her escape, Yuri was forced to shove a few groseros out of the way as she ran straight forward. The crying, the fear, it just wouldn't end for her. She was sure of just how pathetic and scared she was of the world around her. She shook her head while she wept and ran straight, with her knife on hand and rifle strapped. After what seemed like an eternity, Yuri reached the walls of the marketplace. It hit her that this was the same exact place she wrapped Daniela's body in and loaded it to the truck, where she was forced to sink her knife through her temple and keep her from turning. As Yuri ran, her past haunted her. Specially that night at the bar where those gangsters approached her. Had it not been for those drunken men fighting them off, would she have ended up as the victim of a gang bang? She was through with pondering though. All her focus now was on the gate in front of her. She needed to escape the world she was oh so afraid of, the world beyond the marketplace. She knocked recklessly on the gate to the marketplace for what seemed like an eternity to her until one of the guards let her in. As soon as she got in, Yuri ran straight to the vacant medical tent, to finish weeping in silence. ---- As Aguila, Valdez, Jesus, and Francisco emptied out the armory with 4 large duffel bags, Gustavo made the paces with Paloma. Jaime leaned against the fence in an effort to soothe his pain. “It was nothing personal. I had a place to protect, and someone to protect as well. Don't tell me you wouldn't have done the same.” Paloma said, itching for Gustavo's reply. “I understand why you did it, but it was still pretty fucking retarded. You know what that gunfire would have caused?” Gustavo replied, scolding her. Paloma wasn't threatened one bit by Gustavo's harsh demeanor, so she kept her cool very easily. Unlike most women, Paloma actually held a very intimidating physique herself. She stood tall at 1.79 meters and her body was toned itself. “And for that I must apologize. Why don't we try this again, this time on the right foot.” Paloma said, extending her right hand out to Gustavo, who shook it despite a bit of hesitance. “My name is Paloma Avila.” Paloma said to to him. “I'm Gustavo Texta.” he replied. “It is a pleasure to meet you, Gustavo.” Paloma responded back. She wasn't met with another response from Gustavo, because he had turned his attention outside the wall. Paloma too did this, and the looks from Valdez, Francisco, Jesus, and Aguila confirmed Gustavo's worries: a herd was coming. Gustavo turned back to Paloma, glaring at her. She nodded understandbly. Jaime noticed something was off and asked. “What's wrong?” “A fucking herd is what's wrong. Come on, WE HAVE TO GET OUT OF HERE!” Gustavo ordered. And with that, everybody ran outside, even Jaime who struggled deeply. The group moved back to the direction they'd come as fast as they could, despite their injured man and huge load of weapons. As much as they needed to drop them, they were simply too valuable. This left Gustavo, Paloma, and Jaime as the only shooters available, despite the latter's inaccuracy thanks to his injury. As they moved, Paloma focused on shooting the groseros that were trailing them from behind along with Jaime, while Gustavo took care of business up front. This went on for several minutes, yet the grosero numbers wouldn't thin out. Jaime became increasingly sluggish and more groseros joined in on the fun. It certainly looked like they weren't going to make it. “Damn it there's too many of them still! And the truck is still too far!” Valdez yelled in peril. Jesus nudged him in the shoulder. “Where did you park your truck?” Jesus asked. “All the way to the damn entrance.” he replied. This couldn't continue for much longer. Eventually bags were going to have to be dropped or there just wouldn't be enough free hands needed for shooting. Despite the aid of an assault rifle, Paloma freaked out upon seeing Jaime collapse to the ground, his pain being unbearable. Aguila saw this, he saw everything. The hopeless shooting, the heavy bags holding them back. He knew they weren't going to make it, not without being ripped to shreds by the herd. So, he took a deep breath and handed his bag over to Gustavo. “I got an idea.” Aguila told him. Gustavo held the bag with one hand and shot with his free hand but the weight of the back obstructed his aim. “You better not do what I fucking think you're going to do boy!” Gustavo responded to him. “There's no other way! If I don't do this, they're going to rip all of us to shreds!” Aguila replied. He didn't even wait for a response from Gustavo, all he did was move back to Paloma and Jaime. Valdez, Francisco, and Jesus watched in horror, knowing full well what Aguila was about to do. Paloma struggled with shooting those groseros approaching her and the injured Jaime, all she could do was shoot and hope for the best, until Aguila came running back. He helped Jaime up to his feet and both hastily made their way over to Paloma. Aguila reached for Paloma's weapon, who hesitantly handed it over. In exchange, he gave Jaime to her. Jaime simply looked in horror, knowing full well that this would be the last time he'd ever seen his best friend Aguila again. “NOOO STOP! WHAT ARE YOU DOING?” Jaime yelled out to him. Tears were running down his face and Aguila walked closer and closer to the undead herd. “This is it Jaime. This is what I've always wanted, why I joined the military. I wanted to be the hero my country NEEDED, but I was never the hero it WANTED. This is it for me, amigo. If I am to die right here, I am going to die knowing I helped you escape with your lives! I'm sorry buddy, it's my time. It's my time to FINALLY become the hero I've always wanted to be!” Aguila cried out to him. Jaime's cries only became less pronounced as the group got further away from him. Aguila couldn't see them in the distance anymore, which gave him great relief. He continued to fire into the herd, killing as many groseros as he could. Eventually many found their way behind him and it was soon that Aguila felt teeth clamp down on his leg and back. But he shook them off, he wasn't going to be eaten, not today, not ever. He kept shooting and stabbing, knowing his end had come. ---- Several hours later, a severely injured Aguila made his way back to where the truck would have been and collapsed. Dusk had already befallen the day and the darkness of the night, coupled with the noise of crickets, made everything peaceful and serene. The bites on his body were too many to count and the truck was long gone, just like he wanted it to be. As he bled out and the infection rapidly spread, Aguila could only smile. He'd done it. He was now officially a hero. “Are you proud of me now mom? Jaime? Pepe? Manuel? Juarez?” As he spoke, Aguila used the last of his energy to reach for his handgun and hold it up next to his temple. “Mendoza? Aguila Perez...I am proud of you...”. Aguila soon pulled the trigger and a bullet ripped through his skull and exited out the other side, taking chunks of it and brain matter with it. Aguila's dead body released the grasp on the handgun and it fell to the ground with a thud. Soon enough, Aguila's body collapsed to the side, now to rot away in the atmosphere as it was naturally determined. ---- It was finally nighttime at Ashton's, and the night was no longer young. Ashton and Liza slept together on his parent's king sized bed, both fully clothed but snuggling. Ashton found himself awake soon after. He needed a drink of water, so he sat up in his bed. Lazily, he managed to stand up and relinquish himself from Liza's tight snuggle. He reached down near the foot of the bed for his water bottle yet didn't find it. That's when it hit him. He had purposely left it down in the living room next to the supplies. Ashton made his way quietly down the stairs to not call any attention to himself. He hoped his gut was wrong as he stood in the living room. He quickly took a look at the duffel bag full of medical supplies. It was open, unlike how he had left it. His water bottle was gone and the light of the outside bathroom was turned on, as was the door open. He cautiously made his way past the dinner table to the outside bathroom, where his suspicions were confirmed. There she was, Mimi Arguello, collapsed on the ground with her eyes open and her mind in the horizon. Beside her laid an empty jar of painkillers. It took Mimi several seconds to notice Ashton's presence and when she did notice him, she simply smiled. “Hi Ashton.” Category:A Long Road to Fortune Category:A Long Road to Fortune Issues Category:Issues Category:PBR Sharpshoot Stories